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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Nature of The Light and Dark Side

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Chewbacca89, Nov 9, 2012.

  1. Chewbacca89

    Chewbacca89 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 25, 2012
    While there are countless stories of Jedi being seduced and turned to the Dark Side, I find a lack reciprocation from the Sith. Do you think Jedi are more likely to switch side than a Sith would be? Just though it was an interesting idea. While a Jedi might be seduced by power and control, what motivation might a Sith have to turn to the Light Side?
     
    Rainbow Knight Star likes this.
  2. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    [​IMG]
    Lower expenses for skin moisturizer. :D
     
  3. Tim Battershell

    Tim Battershell Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Well - Darth Plagueis alleges that Darth Gravid fell to the light side...

    We can probably discount Revan due to unique circumstances!
     
  4. DarthJenari

    DarthJenari Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 17, 2011
    The darkness is always more tempting, because its the easier path. The idea of just letting go, not having to follow the rules of society, living only for your own wants and desires, very compelling. On the flip side, the path of the light is the more noble, but harder path. And how easy is it to choose the more difficult way? To know there's an easier way, but to reject it in favor of the harder way.
     
  5. Adrian the Cool

    Adrian the Cool Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Vestara Khai joined the Light Side.
     
  6. WIERD_GREEN_MAN

    WIERD_GREEN_MAN Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2010
    Once you've gone, it's hard to go back.
    The dark side controls you.
    And apparently the dark sider is "easier".
     
  7. Charlemagne19

    Charlemagne19 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2000
    Then she yo-yoed back.

    I think there's plenty of cases where people join the Lightside again. It's just that people rarely offer redemption to people who get involved in mass murder/destruction.
     
  8. Reveen

    Reveen Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 2012
    The way it's been portrayed sometimes lately the dark side pretty much turns you into a video game NPC. You barely have any thought processes behind Cruelty coding and the heroes can do whatever they want to you and still be the heroes.

    I dunno, I guess I like it better when it they write is "darksiders are evil because they're terrible people" than "darksiders are evil because the dark side makes them terrible people."
     
  9. Charlemagne19

    Charlemagne19 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2000
    Eh, Lucas seemed to have retconned that out.

    Anakin isn't affected by the One Ring, he's just a guy who makes bad choices.
     
  10. Chewbacca89

    Chewbacca89 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 25, 2012
    Did she really? I always thought she was just kind of play-acting. I never felt she had a real conviction to turn away from the dark side. She was just manipulating Ben....IMHO
     
  11. Tim Battershell

    Tim Battershell Jedi Master star 5

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    Sep 3, 2012
    One doesn't fool a Jedi Grandmaster's mind touch with play-acting - granted, she was very interested in Ben, though!
     
  12. Chewbacca89

    Chewbacca89 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 25, 2012
    I agree. I don't think its possible to fool Luke. I don't know though. Something just doesn't sit right with me that she had turned away from the Dark Side. I guess I just feel conflicted about her true intentions. I guess I am thinking if Palpatine could hide his intentions from Yoda and Windu, is it crazy to think Vestara could fool Luke?

    EDIT: Before someone asks, I am not comparing Vestara to Palpatine as far as power goes...
     
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  13. Tim Battershell

    Tim Battershell Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    I posted elsewhere that I thought she was a situational-conformist with a screw loose.

    The situational-conformist part might be a survival mechanism in a Sith social-order.

    The screw-loose bit was her attraction to Ben.

    The only way that Luke could have been 'fooled' is if Vestara genuinely wanted to change - but she reverted to Sith-type behaviour later in the book (until she can unlearn it, it's her default setting), which she thought would make it impossible. She does seem to have a penchant for killing people that are supposedly on 'her side' - but she did do it to to save Ben's life!

    That said, the revision/correction/retcon (in the ERC) of her Thermal Detonator throw at Allana - into a "botched on purpose" attempt during Apocalypse does give me (and others) some hope!
     
  14. Manisphere

    Manisphere Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2007
    Honestly, I wasn't happy with how Luke believed Vestara's turn to the light side hook, line and sinker. Notice Jaina wasn't overly fooled. Mara wouldn't have been fooled at all. Luke just wants to see the good in everybody and maybe it takes a woman to know another woman. I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask a woman.
     
  15. Tim Battershell

    Tim Battershell Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    I don't think that Jaina really believes that any Sith can be brought back to the light - even her grandfather!
     
  16. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 10, 2005


    You can see here the journal of a Sith Lord who rediscovered the lightside, without any help from the jedi.

    Basically, like all Sith, he contemplated the nature of power, but realized passion is easily manipulated, and the power of fear is temporary at best. True power, he realized, came when one overcame fear, and the only way to overcome fear was to stop grasping after things, power, and even life itself, and lets the force guide their actions.

    Elsewhere in the game, the Jedi Knight meets a very honorable Sith Lord who he can convince to defect. Noticeably, while many Sith choke their subordinates for failing even when they followed the Sith's orders to the letter, he felt responsible for his arrogant apprentice's death at the players hands.


    And here, the player can start a conspiracy of light sided sith.
     
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  17. Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

    Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 23, 1999
    Agree.

    Also I've been thinking - how is the dark side "easier"? Yoda described it this way all the way back in 1980. Since then, the prequels happened. Anakin's reasoning for using the dark side in Episode III is that there are unique powers available there. But they don't seem any "easier" to use or acquire? I have a mental model of how I imagine this kind of harder/honorable/"means based" vs. easier/dishonorable/"ends based" dichotomy, and I'm unsure how this works with the Force now, given the prequels as they are. Maybe it's like, "if you're the kind of person who would want to use the dark side, killing all of your friends to charge up your dark side battery is easy"?
     
  18. Charlemagne19

    Charlemagne19 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2000
    Vestara turned back to the Light in terms of wanting to be a Jedi and good girl. However, she was weak and turned BACK to the Dark Side the moment Ben was in danger.
     
  19. Ulicus

    Ulicus Lapsed Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2005
    Oh that's... lovely. Seriously. I'm increasingly looking forward to free to play TOR... because then I actually will play.
     
    Zorrixor likes this.
  20. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    I love that video too.

    I really should get on with it and update my dang computer so I can play. I've been putting a decision off and off ever since discovering I was unable to play WoW Cataclysm two years ago. :p
     
  21. Fleab88

    Fleab88 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2012
    INteresting discussion. I have a couple of personal thoughts.

    In regards to why the darkside is easier I think it has everything to do with self-control. Harness power and ability in the light side requires keeping yourself in check. There are boundaries you do not cross with the Light side. The dark said allows you to fully give into your emotions in the moment. It is acceptable to push the boundaries as far as you are willing to go.

    What makes a dark side turn back to the light? Interesting question. it seems some have done so for various reason, but I see a common theme in most who defect back to the light. They do so out of a strong emotional attachment to something or someone else. Ironically attachments are one of the things that supposedly lead someone down the dark path, but they also can pull on out of that destructive life. In the end it comes down to the individual rather than the light side and the dark side.
     
    Chewbacca89 likes this.
  22. GrumpyGreg

    GrumpyGreg Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    May 27, 2011
    She wanted to belong first of all: appreciation, trust, love. Especially love. And the Jedi had all that, but to join them she must turn her back on the dark side. It was genuine, it's just that it was only a minor step toward the greater goal. And fighting a dark-side addiction with everyone around radiating suspicion and still treating you as a junkie is very discouraging.
     
  23. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    It's easier to use the dark side because then natural emotions don't have to be supressed. I don't think there are specific powers for each side. The Force is a tool. Intentions/the wielder make the difference.
     
  24. Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

    Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 23, 1999
    That's how I'd prefer it to be, but that doesn't appear to be how Lucas wants it to be.

    Also, isn't a revulsion at killing allies a "natural emotion"? Isn't love, in the spiritual/ethereal sense (Campbell's "bliss," which would seem to go along with Yoda's teachings at any stage) a "natural emotion"?
     
  25. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    Eh, you get my general point, right?
    I assume the love you are talking about is the general compassion, not the romantic stuff Jedi should be above?